In a significant ruling the Orissa High Court on Wednesday directed the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) to pay a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to a student who was initially declared failed in this year’s Matriculation examination and subsequently after rechecking his answer sheets, he was declared passed in first division.
As the student from Bhadrak district lost an academic year to pursue his higher education, the High Court ordered compensation.
Suman Panigrahy of Basudevpur Panchayat High School was appalled when he noticed that he had obtained only six marks out of 100 in the Mathematics paper while his marks in the remaining papers were as expected. He moved the Board for a rechecking and approached the High Court to direct the Board to expedite his case, so that without losing a year, he could pursue higher education.
Accordingly, the HC asked the Board to do the needful. But by the time his rectified mark sheet came showing 89 in mathematics, the last date for applying to higher education had already expired.
Suman again approached the High Court, seeking a compensation of Rs 5 lakh from the Board. Allowing his plea, a single-judge bench of Justice B N Mohapatra awarded a compensation of Rs 3 lakh and suggested the Board that it could collect the damages amount from the employees who were responsible for such a goofup.
